


Stowaway

by Miss_M



Category: Firefly
Genre: Crew as Family, Ficlet, Gen, Ghosts, Haunted Houses, Pre-Canon, or ships in this case
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-31
Updated: 2018-10-31
Packaged: 2019-07-27 23:44:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 815
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16229768
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Miss_M/pseuds/Miss_M
Summary: “The point is, this ship’s haunted.”





	Stowaway

**Author's Note:**

  * For [wnnbdarklord](https://archiveofourown.org/users/wnnbdarklord/gifts).



> This is an extra treat!
> 
> I own nothing.

“Sir, I hate to contradict you…” Zoe began. 

Mal interrupted her: “That ain’t what I remember from Sturges, when we had that dispute about the second platoon’s sergeant bein’ a spy, or from Du-Khang, when you said it was too dangerous for a supply run…”

“I was right,” Zoe cut in placidly. “On both occasions. Sir.”

“That ain’t the point!”

“The point is,” Zoe continued as though Mal hadn’t just shouted. “The point is, this ship’s haunted.”

A brief silence descended on _Serenity_ ’s kitchen. Wash rolled a bit of raw dough across the tabletop, while Kaylee finished up a batch of bao. Zoe sat across from Mal and watched him stew.

“That don’t make no sense,” Mal grumbled. “Ghosts’re meant to be planetbound, not hoppin’ worlds. Matter of fact, I don’t even believe ghosts’re real.”

“Well, this one seems mighty real,” Wash piped up. “Things keep going missing. One of my dinosaurs is gone, so’s Kaylee’s teddy bear, and so’s Zoe’s brand-new…”

Zoe gave her brand-new husband a look, and he shut his mouth so abruptly his teeth clicked together. 

“I only mention it ‘cause I just bought it for you,” he said after a moment. 

Zoe cracked a tiny smile. “I know, dear.” 

Throughout the discussion, Kaylee had focused on what her hands were doing: the dough, the protein filling, shaping each dumpling, a perfect little round world between her palms. She used to love helping her ma around the kitchen, almost as much as she’d loved helping her pa in his workshop. Most of her childhood games had been practical ones, she hadn’t had many toys…

“D’you think it could be a child?” she spoke up, in the middle of Zoe prodding Mal about what he knew of _Serenity_ ’s previous owner, while Mal muttered darkly about how nothin’ ever went easy and Wash reminisced about the ghost stories from his home world, all of which seemed to involve cursed brides and hidden skeletons. 

Everyone went quiet and turned to look at Kaylee. “I was just thinkin’. A toy dinosaur, my teddy, and weren’t the…" She gestured vaguely at her own torso. "The thing you bought for Zoe red wi’ polka dots and lace, Wash?”

“Ye-e-es, and how do you know that?” Wash’s eyes darted around the kitchen, like he expected Kaylee to point out his wife’s honeymoon negligee perched on top of the kitchen cabinet or peeking out of the rice cooker.

“Saves water to combine laundry.” Zoe shrugged off Wash’s wide-eyed stare. 

“My point is,” Kaylee said, “the ghost takes toys and colorful things. What if it’s a child, a girl child?”

“How’d we even agree it’s a ghost?” Mal demanded from no one in particular. “For all we know, the dinosaur and your teddy bear and Zoe’s… thing’re all in the washer, or the compartment under the pilot’s chair.”

Wash shook his head. “I checked.” 

“Well there’s plenty of places on my ship you ain’t checked yet. You’re still new, you don’t know every secret cubby she’s got.” Mal sounded like he’d rather pick a fight than deal with the ghost. 

“Sir,” Zoe’s voice rose a tiny notch, while Wash squared his shoulders and attempted to look tough. 

The conversation went nowhere useful after that. Once everyone had gone to bed, Kaylee got around to finally steaming the bao. She ate some, divided the rest into four equal shares, and placed three in the fridge and the fourth on a clean plate in the middle of the table. There were ghost stories aplenty on her home world too. 

In the morning, Wash stepped out of the shower and square on his toy dinosaur, which sat on the shower-room floor, its spike-studded back pointing up. Once he’d stopped hopping on one foot and cursing, he went to tell Zoe, who plucked her red negligee with the polka dots from under her pillow and held it up with an arched eyebrow. 

Kaylee hurried through the kitchen toward the engine room, clocking the empty plate on the table and squeezing past Mal, who was muttering about how that didn’t mean they had a gorram ghost and his crew were more scatterbrained than a Persephone saloon after two-for-one night. 

Upon entering the engine room, Kaylee saw first that everything was well, the engine running smoothly, all the turbines and ducts and vents working together – the ship’s lungs and veins pumping fuel, coolant, oxygen. 

Then she spotted her teddy bear, with the dungarees her ma had sewn for it and the ear Kaylee’s brother had torn once in a fight, perched on top of the engine.

Kaylee smiled and picked up her old toy. “You can play wi’ it whenever you like,” she told the engine room and patted the bulkhead nearest where she stood. “You’re a good girl. Just get homesick sometimes, out here in the black.”

The ship hummed all around her.


End file.
